patzer2: For today's Wednesday puzzle solution, White plays the Queen clearance (sham) sacrifice 22. Qg7+! to initiate a surprise mate-in-three. Didn't realize this was a Rook Odds game until I clicked on the solution, and verified it from move one.

Once: <zb2cr> Good call. The line I had in mind was 1. Ng5 R-anywhere 2. Qxh7+ Kf8 3. Qh8# or Qxf7#

Playing with this position some more, I've found several other starting positions for the knight where it can give mate in 2 or mate in 3. In fact, black is so tied down that white has a forced mate from just about any square that the knight happens to start on.

Next set of trivia questions - which other squares can the knight start on to give white:

1. mate in 2?
2. mate in 3?

3. Which starting square for the knight does not lead to a forced mate within a reasonable number of moves?

SamAtoms1980: Logic is dangerous. The first thing that came to mind was that White would have a mate in 1 with the queen if g7 weren't guarded by the knight. Thus I sought to eliminate the knight with 22 Rae1. If Black moves the knight White will give checkmate; and if Black doesn't move the knight, White will play 23 Rxe6 and on the following move give mate. An impeccable construction of logic.

Then the whole room tells me that not only is there a forced mate in 3 with 22 Qg7+, but the white rook on a1 that I moved isn't even supposed to be there! The diagram didn't get the memo that it was donated as odds. Now my move doesn't even work: 22 Re1 Qc2 23 Rxe6??? Qd1+ flushes White down the pipes.

That's the problem with logic. You can't rely on it in the real world. Anything built with it is more fragile than a house of cards.

zb2cr: You wrote: "By the way, is there still people playing 3.Bc4 (as in the game) instead of 3.Bb5 ?"

How about you use the <chessgames.com> Opening Explorer and do your own research? A moment's fiddling, plus the use of the "search database for this position", showed me 4191 games in the <chessgames.com> database with the Giuoco Piano variation (1. e4, e5; 2. Nf3, Nc6; 3. Bc4, Bc5). Of those, 318 were played in 2008 and 2009 alone.

I lack the time to go through those games and tabulate who won, who lost, etc., but as I said, you may use the Opening Explorer for your own research.

Thanks. But I was' nt asking about statistics, but rather if, among us, some were still using those old systems. I am perfectly aware of the fact that those systems are rather scarcely used nowadays. Maybe I should have used the 'among us' clarification when I wrote my 'request'. Sorry about that.

Actually, I prefer using the Giuoco Piano line myself to the Ruy Lopez. Fewer analyzed lines to remember to great depth with a less-popular variation.

I've had some success with it, but I'm strictly a club player. I allowed my USCF rating to go inactive at 1456. If you could look at some of the games of the more advanced players here, you would have a better idea of the value of that system.

For example, one poster here, <Honza Cervenka> is rated 2200 in correspondence and has had a number of games published on this site under the name <Jan Cervenka>. While he has not played the Giuoco Piano opening or the Evans Gambit as White, he has a few games facing them as Black posted on <chessgames.com>. There are probably others; Grandmaster Ray Keene occasionally posts here, for example.

Strike that "occasionally" comment on Ray Keene--he maintains a forum here that's quite active (301 total pages). He responds to questions that other posters place there--you might ask him what his opinion of the line is!

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